Diane Webster

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CEMETERY SANDS

Soldiers buried upright

with their helmets

exposed –

barrel cacti cluster

in platoons.

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OVER THE EDGE

The table cloth travels beyond
its absolute parallel with the table,
and it rejoices! feeling curves and wrinkles
instead of linear attention —
even draping toward the floor
in gleeful balance before gravity pulls,
and it crumples on the floor with maybe
one more thread count over the edge…
until her hands straighten the jumble,
and the cloth and table merge as one again.

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DOG GALLOPS

The blanket lies on the back of the couch

like the cat sleeping in sunshine

its fur bristling in static-electricity

excitement both cat and blanket equal

until the lint brush soothes the blanket’s

hackles like after the cat leaps inside

to rub against a calm leg and hand

while outside the marauding dog

gallops paw prints into soil.

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GAPS

Two old men sit two feet apart

on the park bench where slats

let air pass through in two inch

increments while the bicycle

leans on its kickstand.

Its front wheel spokes

pretend a quiver to speed

where optical illusion

appears as if they are one.

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Diane Webster’s work has appeared in El Portal, New English Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Verdad and other literary magazines. She had micro-chaps published by Origami Poetry Press in 2022 and 2023 and was nominated for Best of the Net in 2022.

Next Poet: Chelsie Kreitzman